Attitudes toward “Non-Traditional” Mothers: Examining the Antecedents of Mothers’ Competence Perceptions

Silvia Di Battista (), Marco Salvati, Irem Ertan and Monica Pivetti
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Silvia Di Battista: Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, 24129 Bergamo, Italy
Marco Salvati: Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, 37129 Verona, Italy
Irem Ertan: Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, 24129 Bergamo, Italy
Monica Pivetti: Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, 24129 Bergamo, Italy

Social Sciences, 2022, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: Mothers are the protagonists in a widespread narrative that emphasizes motherhood as prolonged and exclusive attention to children, accompanied by references to natural competence in child-rearing skills. The present research aimed to investigate the linking mechanisms and conditional processes underlying the perception of mothers’ competence. Cisgender heterosexual Italian participants ( N = 230) read one of four vignettes describing a situation in which a mother (i.e., heterosexual biological mother, heterosexual stepmothers, lesbian stepmother, and lesbian biological mother) interacts with her two children who had misbehaved. After reading the vignette, the participants rated the depicted mother’s competence and to what extent the children’s misbehaviour was attributable to the mother. Moderated-mediation analyses indicated that all the non-traditional mothers were perceived as being less competent compared to the heterosexual biological mother, by giving them greater responsibility for their children’s misbehaviour, among participants with medium–high levels of traditional gender-role beliefs. Sexual orientation and biology relatedness were not cumulative variables, but intersecting categories creating a unique way to perceive mothers. As the number of non-traditional families grows, negative societal attitudes toward non-traditional parents and their children should be increasingly considered.

Keywords: attitudes; gender role beliefs; motherhood; mothers; sexual prejudice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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